Discipline & Desire (CD)

Wax Idols

1 Used

Amoeba Review

03/26/2013

Oakland’s Wax Idols make the leap to Slumberland for their second album and offer the dirtier post-punk side of the coin to the shinier jangle-pop offered by many bands on the label. Discipline & Desire actually starts so aggressively and atonal with its first two blistering tracks that you almost worry it’ll be too thorny to latch onto, but third track “When It Happens” offers such chiming beauty in its verses that its heavily distorted chorus goes down like cool soda. Similarly, the morose “The Scent of Love” echoes Siouxsie & The Banshees in one of their more tunefully restrained moments, showing Wax Idols are aware the “discipline” part of their equation bears equal import, but it’s just as great when they let loose, as on the full-court press of “The Cartoonist.” This balance helps make Wax Idols’ second album a tasty (if heavily spiked) concoction.